title: The impact of severe preeclampsia on maternal quality of life.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Preeclampsia (PE) is a serious life event that can change women's psychological profile. The aim of this study was to evaluate the physical and mental health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) in women after PE and the impact of contributing factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ninety-five women who had suffered from PE answered the Short-Form-12 Health Survey on general state of health. Comparison was made with the reference values and among the study cohorts, namely mild (14.7 %), severe (74.7 %) and superimposed PE (10.5 %). Medical parameters were evaluated as additional factors, and age served as covariate.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Quality of mental life was significantly worse in all patients (p < 0.01), especially in those after severe PE (p < 0.01) compared to the reference range. These women demonstrated significantly worse results than those affected by the mild form (p = 0.03). Women who had had superimposed PE were neither physically nor mentally impaired compared to the standard population values (p = 0.94 and p = 0.90, respectively). After controlling for medical parameters and age, differences remained statistically significant. Multiparous women scored significantly worse on the mental scale than primiparous (p = 0.02), and pregnant women scored significantly worse than non-pregnant women on the physical level (p = 0.04).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study shows that women who have suffered from severe PE are substantially reduced in their mental quality of life. An extensive medical care including HR-QoL parameters might improve pregnancy outcome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medical University of Graz, Auenbruggerplatz 14, 8036, Graz, Austria, christina.stern@medunigraz.at.
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stern
authors.forename: Eva-Maria
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Trapp
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mautner
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Deutsch
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Lang
authors.forename: Mila
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cervar-Zivkovic
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001317:Austria / Q000453:epidemiology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D036861:Delivery, Obstetric / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008429:Maternal Welfare; D010298:Parity; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome; D011264:Pregnancy Trimesters; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis / Q000379:methods; D011788:Quality of Life; D012016:Reference Values; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult